"There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action. All gentle souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each proceed along our path to the same goal, united in purpose, and by the means of God's plan which, in its great variety, is in us all."
Jean-Pierre de Caussade

26 May 2015

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”

Frantz Fanon

"Certainly there were many others as reprehensible and irresponsible as those who played the leading roles. The German people were the victims. The battle, as one who survived it explained, left them dazed and inflation-shocked. They did not understand how it had happened to them, and who the foe was who had defeated them."

Adam Fergusson, When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse

June is a big, active month for gold on the Comex.

And today was the option expiration for the precious metal June contracts.

Le voilà, comme prévu.

What else might we have expected? Honesty? Price discovery? A market clearing price between users and suppliers?

These are markets that have been willfully overwhelmed and misdirected by speculation. There are no fundamentals in The Bucket Shop, just what is essentially full time market rigging, with little to no product changing hands between long term investors and suppliers.

And similarly, like healthy nourishment in a snack cake, so there is still little to no recovery in The Recovery™.

When the reckoning for this protracted folly and organized plunder finally comes, they will all be so amazed.

It is so very modern to think that things are just as we say they are, because we say so. And nowhere is this psychosis more apparent than in modern economics and money.

It is the ultimate tyranny of selfishness and egoism, and will last as long as the masters can keep extending their power and their will, crushing all dissent and all others in their path,

And then comes the downfall, the sickening plunge, and the moment of terrible lucidity when the music stops. And the illusion dies.

Le Propriétaire

I make every attempt to respect the rights of others. If you feel that something here has infringed your work please let me know and I will correct it immediately. It is not always easy to determine the status of material posted to the Internet with regard to fair use and public domain.

Need Little - Want Less - Love More

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership cannot reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without implicating a broad swath of the powerful, including themselves.

The moneyed interests and their aspirants tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so. Discipline is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and career and social coercion."

These are personal observations about the economy and the markets. In providing information, I hope this allows you to make your own decisions in an informed manner, even if it is from learning by my mistakes, which are many. As a standing policy I never provide individual investment advice to anyone. I will only occasionally disclose my personal positions for purposes of illustration. Understand that my own circumstances could differ greatly from your own, and therefore what is suitable for me may not be suitable for you. My comments are intended to be reflection on general macro financial and economic events and trends.